Thunderfoot
by Ferox the Mightyena
Summary: Out of the darkness comes a herd of Rapidash easily five-hundred strong. They think it's over; they think they're safe. But when a curious young shiny finds a strange creature, the ultimate question is asked; is there really a god to protect them?
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

_A white beast gazed across the landscape. Nothing could possibly match it in beauty; one could only look upon it in mesmerised awe. Fire blazed from its ankles and a sun-bright ribbon of flame shot down its back to the very tip of its tail. A long snow-white horn struck the skyline with precision._

_It suddenly reared up to its hind legs, flailing its diamond-hard hooves, and let out a terrible scream that shook the heavens. For although the surfaces of its eyes were crowded with pride and power, underneath was a whole world of fear. Fear of the Luxray and his all-seeing eyes. Fear of the Mightyena and his sorrowful howl. Fear of the Absol and his calamity-bringing horn. It wasn't the hunter. It was the hunted. Arceus had gifted it the power of speed; nothing could outrun it; nothing could catch it. But it was tired of running. It wanted to stop and rest and find peace and serenity._

_It knew it was almost there, a place where safety dwelt. It poured the ground as it touched down and snorted, before kicking its feet and fleeing into the morning sun again. Silence returned to the plains. Just as all became peaceful, out of the darkness-ridden lands from which it came, one thousand candles of radiant light came charging; hope from the dark. The very earth on which the Rapidash ran trembled beneath them, as they fled the shadows and the predators._


	2. 1 The Sacred Lands

**Chapter One – The Sacred Lands**

"I see it, Pa, I see it!" the little blue Ponyta yelped joyfully as she trotted beside her father, the leader of the herd. The leader grinned; not even he could contain his excitement.

"We'll be safe there, won't we, Pa? No darkness or hunters?" she ran slightly ahead, swinging her head around gleefully.

"Just a little more to go, Sika." he smiled as he walked briskly on the dry, cold grass. The herd had made good progress; they had taken only three days to get this far. By the amount of birds in the air, he suspected the darkness must have passed by now, and so posed no more threat to them, but predators who fled it had come to there old home lands made it unsafe to live there. And so, as a last resort, he was taking the herd to the last safe place he knew of – the Sacred Lands. Ever since he was young, the elders had told him stories surrounding the place; he particularly liked the one about when Arceus came to bless it.

…_and so the foolish Luxray sought to slay every other predator in the land so he and his family would have all the food there was. But Arceus was angry at him for being so selfish and so blessed a land for which his prey could hide from him. So the Luxray would work for his food, but even with his all-seeing eyes, he would never find them…_

He stopped abruptly.

"Praise Moltres!" he shouted joyfully and whinnied loudly. His own cries became many cheers and laughs as the herd celebrated their arrival at the Sacred Lands. They tossed themselves about ecstatically, flinging their slender faces to the sky and belting cries of happiness, for below them lay a vast glen, seemingly made from the finest of emeralds and sprinkled with tiny gem-like flowers. Great hills rose around it like the tops of giant oaks. Through the middle a crystal clear river meandered like a ribbon of sapphires. Sika gasped in awe as she saw it and she knew that she had just caught a glance of heaven.

"We're home!" cried a delighted voice somewhere behind her.

"Ma!" she neighed, overjoyed to see her mother, Ferna, for the first time since they set off.

"You have to agree with me, Cornu, that we'll be safe here." she said to the leader with relief.

"It's still too early to make assumptions, but this valley is very well guarded," he promptly replied without turning around, "this is the only way in" He faced the exited herd and Ferna, "Anyway, we should go in and settle down," he said before adding, "it might take time, you know."

The herd began to descend into the valley.

"Won't the river divide us?" asked Ferna.

"Maybe. I don't think it'll be too much of a problem, it's not that deep, after all."

The Rapidash calmly grazed while the Ponyta ran around, glad to be able to play again. Sika had few friends, due to her colouration, but she knew how to have fun on her own. She didn't hesitate to start exploring her knew home. She wandered a little away from the herd to the waterside. She saw a strange plant sprouting by the river. On it were tiny berries, fat and ripe like the grasses beneath her hooves. She knew that only the Rapidash should tell her what to eat, when berries were ripe and which plants were poisonous, but she felt that she deserved her independence. _I'm in the Sacred Lands, what danger can there possibly be here? _She plucked the berries daintily from the twigs, letting their juices flow between her teeth. But a sour-bitter flavour bit at her tongue and she spat them out in disgust, washing her mouth in the slow river and taking huge gulps of the fresh clean water.

"What are you doing, little sister?"

She turned to her Rapidash half-brother, Tiro, gagging and coughing.

"Sika, did you eat the berries?"

She nodded, still choking. Tiro was very considerate and she loved him dearly. They shared a father, but then Cornu was the father of half of the herd, being the leader.

"Which did you eat?"

She gestured over to the bush and he trotted to inspect it.

"Oh, no, no, no! Those are very poisonous if you don't like bitterness!"

Her eyes widened. "I though that everything was safe here!" she rasped, "Arceus blessed it!"

Tiro shook his head. "You don't believe that sort of thing do you?" he sighed. He looked at her coughing and spitting as if deciding what to do, before nudging her away from the river, to the herd and the wisest of them all, Scire. Tiro saw him lying down next to his sister, Caput.

"Tiro! Sika!" the old stallion cried, "It's nice to see that both of you made it!"

"It's nice to see you survived too," Tiro replied, somewhat offended, but barely bothered. Scire snorted.

"Barely."

"He was attacked by those Mightyena that sent us running here in the first place." said Caput, leaning over to his left flank. Tiro and Sika paced over to Scire's left; along his side ran a large tear in his flesh, red and raw.

"Oh, Scire! This could be the death of you!"

"It will heal with time. Those dirty thieves didn't get away unmarked either. I kicked one in the head." He laughed. "I've still got my old tricks! Shows not even a starsheen of their kind is that clever!"

"A starsheen? Like me?" Sika's ears pricked.

"Don't think you could befriend it. It would kill and eat you if it had half the chance!"

"What colour was –"Sika stopped as her head suddenly began to spin. She groaned.

"Sit down before you hurt yourself." Tiro comforted her.

"Confusion?" Scire asked him.

"Yes. Aguav berries."

"Dear, oh, dear." Scire shook his head. "It's Persim you'll be wanting then. I don't know if there are any around here, but it's much better than simply waiting for the poison to wear off."

Tiro nodded and nuzzled Sika to her feet again, who staggered like a Spinda.

"Alright, let's go while you're still able to stand."

Sika stumbled back to the Aguav bush by the river with Tiro pushing her and uttering words of reassurance.

"D-do you see any?" she stuttered.

"Not yet. Keep looking."

"I… I can hardly see…"

The Rapidash rolled his eyes. "Lie down if you're that bad."

"I'm fine." She told him boldly, feeling rather pathetic.

"Don't pester me then. We need to recover you quickly."

Sika yelled as she fell to the ground out of dizziness.

"I'm so stupid…" she whimpered.

"Here! I found some!"

She sprang back to her feet teetering like a seesaw and tried to walk over to her brother. She saw the berries and lurched to the bush. The berries were a cute pink and they looked fit to burst with juices. She snatched some from behind the plant's leaves. Flavour soaked her mouth and gave a sigh of relief as her senses returned to normal. The taste reminded her of her early days in the old home land, in the same way her mother's face. Ferna was older and her muzzle was showing the beginnings of grey, but her eyes were still the same chestnut brown they always had been that Sika adored. She loved the taste too, digging her head into the vegetation for more. She was greeted by a high-pitched cry beside her ear and she started violently.

"Sika?" Tiro looked puzzled. Sika looked round. Had he not heard the noise?

"There's something in the bush!"

"Let's go now." Tiro said with surprising urgency. They turned tail and walked away briskly with the occasional suspicious glace backwards.

What they didn't see, cowering within the bush, were two eyes gleaming like lightning and a black body that trembled like thunder. Its veins were like cables that flowed with electricity.

It cried like a tree would, struck down by the storm.


End file.
